Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a dedicated-connection, cell switching, data network protocol and technology. ATM organizes digital data into constant length cells, and switches these cells between transmission devices according to specified protocol. In ATM, connection data is switched between a source transmission device and a destination transmission device across a data path (or circuit or data pipe). In ATM, connection control signals are switched between the source transmission device and the destination transmission device across a signaling path (or signaling circuit or signaling pipe) that is separate from the data path.
In ATM, because the data and the control signals are each transmitted across the separate pipes, verifying a signaling connection is not the same as verifying that a data communication can or has been made. And in ATM, if a connection has been set up meaning that the signalling path has been established, the data path may not be established; or if the data path has been established, the data path may not transmit data properly, and thus data transmissions may be flawed. What is needed is an apparatus and a method to verify that a data path has been established. Current systems and methods do not verify that the data path transmits data from a source transmission device to a destination transmission device, and from the source transmission device to the destination transmission device without error.
In ATM, a data pipe is generally formed by a connection from a source transmission device through a sequence of a plural number of intermediate transmission devices to the destination transmission device. Each time a packet is forwarded through an intermediate transmission device, a “hop” occurs. Any data path can take a plural number of routings from the source transmission device to the destination transmission device. The more hops, the longer it takes for data to go from source to destination. Current systems do not tell users how many hops there are along the data path from the destination transmission device to the source transmission device, the identity of each intermediate transmission device, and how long each intermediate transmission device takes to process a hop.